Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a furniture system and to a chair for acting together with a furniture system of the invention.
Description of the Background Art
Furniture systems are known in general in which the chair and increasingly the associated table as well are usually adjustable in height. As a rule, at least the setting made for the chair is retained for a long time, and the table is occasionally adjusted so that work can be performed while standing. This option is chosen by users who wish to obtain relief from back problems in this way. It is well known that it is basically necessary to bring more physical activity into our daily lives and to change our sitting habits so that we stand up for at least three to five minutes two to three times per hour. This frequent and brief straightening up of the body gives the body cells sufficient impetus to maintain crucial metabolic processes or to restart them.
An electrically height-adjustable chair, particularly a hairdresser chair, a dentist chair, or the like, with a lifting unit which can be electrically driven is known from DE 102008018654 B4. The chair can be adjusted in its height, without the chair having to be released for the height adjustment, as is customary in a height adjustment by means of a gas spring. The lifting unit may be hydraulic in which a pump is actuated by an electric motor. Alternatively, a toothed rack or a spindle drive with an electric motor is also conceivable.
The height adjustment of tables is usually carried out by means of spring systems, gas springs, or by means of an electric motor in conjunction with threaded rods. The systems with springs and gas springs have the advantage that they are inexpensive and enable a rapid adjustment and the disadvantage that time and again they result in different and possibly ergonomically unfavorable positions. In the case of an electrical adjustment, this disadvantage can be avoided relatively easily by a programmable preset. Nevertheless, this leads to interruptions in the workflow because the adjustment lasts for a certain time. In addition, many of the still relatively few people overall with access to a height-adjustable table are generally so absorbed in their work that in any case they do not make the frequent adjustment of the table, desirable from the medical point of view.
An ergonomic furniture system is known from DE 102009053312 A1 which consists of an electrically height-adjustable table and chair and in which the height-adjustable table wirelessly receives the height of the chair from the chair and moves the table top electrically into an ergonomic favorable position relative to the chair. Furthermore, the seat comprises a plurality of electrically controllable drives which, in addition to seat height, can adjust various regions, e.g., the backrest position, the lumbar support position, and the armrest position of the seat and thus adapt them to the user.
A lifting column unit for the electromotive adjustment of a height-adjustable furniture piece, in particular a table, is known from DE 102010046769 A1. A control device disposed in the motor housing controls the drive motor for retracting and extending the particularly telescopic lifting column.
A chair whose height can be adjusted by means of a gas spring and in which the contour of the chair's seat surface is forcibly mechanically changed when the chair height is adjusted is known from EP 1176891 B1.
A device for programming control data into a control unit for actuating functional elements on functional furniture such as adjustable tables or chairs is known from DE 202004012430 U1. In particular, a removable storage element such as a chip card is proposed.
Further disadvantages in the effort to introduce physical activity into sitting during office work with the help of a height-adjustable table result from the office chairs customary today. Their changeability of the seat height is generally limited to adaptation to the different body heights of the users when sitting, wherein the angle between the body and the thigh should be 90° according to the standard. This takes into account the fact that hardly any rather great height differences can be overcome by the usual means, namely, a gas spring in conjunction with the available installation space. This in turn has the result that the user of a height-adjustable table has the choice either to sit with the table at the sitting height or to stand while the office chair is useless and out of place in the work area. In addition, standing up from the normal seat height is rather arduous and the user has no support when standing at the table. For this reason, the user will not endure the upright or standing position for long and certainly not do this two or three times per hour, as would be desirable from the medical point of view.
In order to prevent users from becoming too tired during standing desk work, standing aids are conceivable as they are used for predominantly standing activities. They are distinguished by a smaller and narrower seat surface, because the large seat surface, required for normal office chairs for good load distribution, therefore when the angle between body and thigh is significantly greater than 90° (180° when standing), detrimentally affects the blood circulation in the thigh. In this set-up, two seating units, namely an office chair with a normal seat surface and a standing aid with a small seat surface, must be kept available at the workplace, which is disadvantageous because of the additional space requirement and the additional cost.